JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort & Spa

A stay at this resort offers the best of many worlds: easy access to San Antonio and its airport, proximity to scenic Hill Country and its wineries, and plenty of on-site amenities to encourage you to hang around. Spread over 600 acres, the property includes an 18-hole golf course, a nine-acre water park (with a winding lazy river and 650-foot rapid river ride), hiking trails, and a 30-room spa, where treatments incorporate Texas-grown ingredients like lavender and sassafras. The facilities fan out from the LEED-certified main building, which houses 1,000 warm, comfortable guestrooms, many of which look out onto the main pool. There are also enough restaurants to warrant a multi-day stay, from an organic-focused spa bistro and a sports bar with local brews, to a Texas-inspired main restaurant and a fine-dining steakhouse set among the golf greens. Each spot uses ingredients sourced within a 150-mile radius of the hotel, and aims to highlight Texas wine and beer. While the kids are off enjoying the water park or video game arcade, adults can take a tequila tasting class or settle into a rocking chair with a good book—then everyone can meet around the indoor or outdoor fireplaces to trade stories.

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JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort & Spa

Charged with turning the six restaurants at the JW Marriott Hill Country Resort & Spa into a true taste of Texas, Chef Ryan Littman didn’t balk. A longtime advocate of regional flavors, he believes the flavor on the plate happens in direct proportion to the distance from the farm to the table. So not only does he maintain and plan a prodigious herb and vegetable garden on the resort’s property, he goes out of his way to develop personal relationships with farmers, ranchers and smaller purveyors of local products. With sustainability in mind, Littman, who has been recognized by the James Beard Foundation as one of the “Best Hotel Chefs in America,” creates the menus for the resorts six distinctive restaurants.